Vehicles may be used for towing or dragging persons or items. Currently, many types of powered boats are used for watersports such as water skiing and wakeboarding. For many years, watersports involving a person being towed behind a boat were principally equipped with a boat whose stern rose from the water's surface less that the height of an average person, though larger boats may have had a higher-positioned stern. Regardless, the mount for the tow rope was located on the stern rail or some other relatively low point. Consequently, the fluid dynamic and aerodynamic properties of these watersports involved a pulling force provided to the skier in a primarily horizontal direction, parallel to the surface of the water.
Wakeboarding is still a relatively new sport. The sport is similar to waterskiing in that a person, the wakeboarder, is towed by a rope behind a powerboat. Instead of riding a relatively narrowly ski, however, a wakeboarder rides an appropriately titled wakeboard. A wakeboard is much wider than a waterski and typically much shorter. Because of the ergonomics of a wakeboard, it is recognized that the wakeboard creates a significant amount of drag that is transmitted from the wakeboarder through the tow rope to the boat.
Often waterskiing and other such tow-sports involve a boat traveling at a relatively high velocity. As is commonly known, a drag force is directly proportional to the square of the velocity of the body. Therefore, the faster the skier is being towed, the much greater the drag force the skier is exerting on the tow rope and, therefore, to the tow mount.
One way in which this drag has been alleviated is through the use of a tower or superstructure developed principally for wakeboarding purposes. From the tower, a mount is located from which the wakeboarder's tow rope is attached. Specifically, a tower is mounted to the deck or sides of the boat so that the tower rises above the boat, and the tow rope mount is located on the top of the tower thereby providing clearance for the tow rope to move laterally in relation to the boat. More importantly, however, the tow rope is now positioned rising from the horizontal so that, when pulling a wakeboarder or the like, the tow rope is providing a lift to the wakeboarder. Such a lift decreases the drag, reduces the work the wakeboarder must exert against the water, and assists in the performance of stunts and acrobatics.
The design of these recreational boats, the towers, and other accessories, is subject to design criteria of each's function, aesthetic, and ergonomics. More specifically, the function includes that the boat and accessories have to fulfill their purpose, have to be able to withstand the rigors of use where the user may be a professional athlete who requires many hours and days of heavy use on the equipment, and has to survive a marine and outdoor environment. For the tower permanently mounted to the hull and structure of the boat, it would be difficult and possibly deleterious to the boat if the tower needed replacement, much more so if it were frequent replacement. In addition, replacement of only a portion of the tower would be similarly difficult if the tower were a single, unitary construction.
As for aesthetic, wakeboarding is like other so-called ‘extreme sports’ in that it is predominantly young, energetic people engaged in a relative new trendsetting sport or pastime. One aspect of the aesthetics is that the boat and accessories reflect this attitude. Beyond this, the concept of industrial design is to provide a design whose form also follows its function.
Ergonomics, which in many ways can be restated as simplicity of use, is also a factor. Typically, the tower is a structure built entirely out of tubular metal such as steel pieces. The towers are not fabricated in their first instance as a single item, instead being a number of steel pieces that are welded at the joints. Often, users attach additional accessories to the tower, such as lights, speakers, or devices for mounting and storing items.
One item which can be stored in a device mounted to the tower is the wakeboard or ski or the like. In order to conserve space within the passenger compartment, it is preferred that any on-board wakeboards refrain from hindering the movement of occupants, and that the wakeboards are stored simply and securely, as well as simply removed from storage. Accordingly, wakeboards are often held on the outside portions of the tower.
Accordingly, there is a need for a new tower and tower support design.